A Host of Characters-Major Humphrey Carew

Major Humphrey Carew…There’s a bloody awful poem about him:

He is known as ‘Mad Carew by the subs at Kathmandu,
He was hotter than they felt inclined to tell;
But for all his foolish pranks, he was worshipped in the ranks,
And the Colonel’s daughter smiled on him as well.

Professor Moriarty, The Hound of the D’ Urbervilles, Kim Newman

1/72 Scale Zulu War British Infantry Soldiers

“The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom.” Although the British would at first, suffer a major defeat, they would eventually triumph over the Zulu.

The front cover and a painting illustration on the back demonstrate how these miniatures should be painted.
   

There are fifty soldiers in several different poses on two half's of a sprue. The detail is good, but there is some flash and at this size will make preparation a bit of a challenge.

Malaya- The Malayan Campaign

The main belligerents of the Malayan Campaign were the British Commonwealth army units, and the Imperial Japanese Army. The Japanese were out-manned by nearly 70,000, but had superior numbers in aircraft and tanks. The Malayan Campaign was a complete disaster for commonwealth forces. The Malaya V post card game pits the commonwealth units against the invading Imperial Japanese Army. Can you out maneuver the Japanese forces and hold onto Malaya?

1/72 Zvezda British Machine Gun w/Crew

A screenshot of the original image was taken here.

The four figures and Vickers machine gun do not require any glue to assemble. I did not notice any flash on any of the components and the parting lines if they exist are minimal. The kit includes two spruces with the four figures, bases (2), and machine gun being divided between the two spruces.

The 1/72 scale is a rather a small scale and some of the pieces are very small and delicate. Care should be taken when removing these from their spruces. The detail of the figures is better than some I have seen and the poses are functional and realistic. Whether a machine gun crew would set-up without any cover is question that will have to addressed when deciding what details should be added to base.

1/72 Zvezda British Machine Gun w/Crew Spruce

I will be using the following two resources when deciding how I should detail the machine gun.

• The Vickers Machine Gun
• British WWII Vickers Display Machine Gun with Tripod

Artizan Designs' Painting Guides

I recently purchased a copy of Zvezda’s British Machine Gun w/Crew 1939-42. This set includes four 1/72 miniatures, three British soldiers and one machine gun. I have been searching for painting guides for British army figures and came across Artizan Designs' WWII Painting & Camo Guides. Each guide is cross referenced with a general colors and a Vallejo Model paints color.

Images from the Revolutionary War Encampment Weekend

A re-enactment of a Revolutionary War Encampment was held on the Daniel Boone Homestead over the weekend. It was a two day event with about seventy-five re-enactors taking part. There were camp, small arms demonstrations and talks about the life of camp followers. There was also gun and blacksmithing demonstrations. The programs climax was a re-enactment battle between British and colonial forces
Here are a few, of what I thought, were some of the better ones. Perhaps I will go through the images again and upload a few others.

British and Loyalist Troops in Review.

A view of the continental army's encampment

A couple colonial camp followers performing some sewing.

Another view at camp with a continental standing outside his ten.t

A few British Dragoons letting off some steam.

A British regiment on their way to battle.

A British regiment forming ranks.

A British regiment firing their smooth-bore flint-locks.These guns were not as actuate as a rifled gun, but could be reloaded about four times per minute.

A British regiment firing at will.

Continentals firing their rifled flint-locks back on the British.The "rifled" gun was more actuate than the British smooth-bores, but could not be reloaded as fast as the smooth-bore; they could be reloaded about two times per minute.